LENS: BRITISH ARMY
For its latest recruitment campaign, the British Army has created a female-led video showing that soldiers are defined by their skills not gender.
Creative agency, Karmarama, part of Accenture Interactive worked with Capita for Capita to create this video campaign titled ‘A Soldier is a Soldier’ for the British Army. The creative aims to attract female talent that may believe gender bias would limit their career prospects or quality of care.
It also works to demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to dispelling gender discrimination by educating viewers on its ethos of equality. It positions the Army as an inclusive employer with equal pay according to rank and equal expectations for all soldiers.
This year, the Army is looking to encourage more women to apply, with current female representation within the organisation at only 9.8% in the British Army and 14.2% in the Army Reserves.
Siobhan Penrose, head of marketing for the British Army Recruiting Group, says, “We’re proud to be launching a campaign with the Army that directly addresses our attitudes to diversity and inclusion. We hope to build on the success of previous campaigns and ultimately offer all soldiers a chance to reach their full potential through a great career in the British Army.”
Female soldiers narrate the campaign as they answer the question, ‘what is it like being a female soldier?’ The narrator simply says, ‘I wouldn’t know’ because in the Army a soldier is a soldier.
Using real female Army soldiers creates an authentic and striking visual. One soldier states ‘no-one calls me ‘good for a woman’ when I’m the one stitching them up.’ The video addresses stereotypes by challenging the ridiculousness of female-adapted Army equipment, such as ‘beach body rations’ and ‘easy-pull trigger for smaller hands.’
Nik Studzinski, chief creative officer at Karmarama says, “Building on the foundations of our ‘This is Belonging’ campaign, ‘A soldier is a soldier’ further challenges perceptions some people may have of the Army. In this case, gender labelling. The most important thing in the Army is what kind of soldier you are. Not what gender you are. We’re proud to work with Capita and the British Army and driving further progress towards gender equality is something that’s really important to everyone at Karmarama.”
The integrated campaign will be shown across cinema, video-on-demand, radio and social media. Further creative campaigns will run across media and radio. ‘A Soldier is a Soldier’ is the latest iteration in the long term ‘This is Belonging’ series, with this campaign showing how belonging means everyone’s’ potential and skills are spotted and valued.